Saint Luis Rey, Mark Twain and Debonaire Cigars

I have a co-worker who likes cigars and we’ve been trading smokes back and forth over the last few months. he lives in the Allentown, PA area, so he’s in the CI stores pretty often. When I say trading, it started with one of the guys telling him I liked cigars, and him gifting me a couple as a welcome to the company kind of thing. I responded in kind, as I’m the one who’s supposed to be giving cigars to people, ya know?  Over the last year or so he still doesn’t get it. So it’s become a thing, the same bag being passed back and forth ever other Monday. Oddly, he seems to find cigars I haven’t tried.  One of which was a Saint Luis Rey Titan.  He gave me one of these last year and I had the unfortunate experience of literally falling on my face in the street with the cigar in my mouth.  I was digging it too, and it smashed, probably saving my teeth and nose form damage.  So I had an opportunity to give it another go this week, and I really enjoyed it.  It’s made in Honduras with a Nicaraguan wrapper and binder, and fillers from Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru.  When I look at the Altadis portfolio and think that there are only a select few cigar in it I like, I forget about the Saint Luis Rey.  I really liked think in the 90s when I believe they were made by Julio Eiroa, but my recollection could be flawed. ck to the cigar, I really like these, it probably has to do with that peruvian tobacco, I love what that does to a blend. There’s an interesting and unique spice the it brings. The cigar burned well, I didn’t fall on my face, and life was good. The size is 5½” x 60, and I found that it was a good size. I don’t mind a 6×60, or 4½x60, or 4×60 even, so this was good. These are a very good value.

Next from my coworker, we’ll call him “Stan” so I don’t have to keep typing “coworker”, was a 6″x60 Mark Twain Memoir No.2.  He gave this to me a while ago, and I sat on it a while. I remember that Mark Twain smoked terrible cigars to keep the moochers from mooching his cigars, so maybe not a great branding idea?  So with a bit of trepidation I lit it up. Not bad at all!  There’s not a lot of information about this line out there, it seems to be Nicaraguan in make-up, which seems right and has a Pennsylvania Broadleaf wrapper, which is very intriguing. It’s a Meier and Dutch distributed brand, so it would be available to B&Ms, but most of the outlets that seem to have it online are in the CI Family.  These are under $4, which makes them a tremendous value I think, because it was a solid cigar. It had a pleasing flavor, there were more interesting flavors than in some pricier cigars. I don’t know where this is made, but it was of good quality, which probably would have put it out of Samuel Clemens’ wheelhouse. Nothing to fear there, I’d smoke them again, and I like what the PA Broadleaf adds

“Stan” also gave me a RoMEo 505, which I’ve enjoyed before, and the one I smoked this week came from a purchase a few months ago. I also had a yearning for a Hemingway Short Story, but I came across a Maduro Best Seller first and had to smoke it, what a special little smoke! I also grabbed a Herrera Esteli TAA edition. Oddly, the Herrera Esteli line doesn’t excite me as much as it does others. I love the Norteño, and I happily smoke the Herrera Estelis and think Willie is a great guy, but I’m afraid it’s not a cigar I go out of my way for. I do keep trying though.  So I’ll wrap this up with the Debonaire Maduro Sagita.  I forget the circumstance, but Friday I wanted a smaller cigar, I remember, it was snowing like crazy, I dropped my wife off at a job, got home t find out it was canceled, and headed back out to get her. So when I got home I was more than ready for a smoke, if only to calm my shattered nerves.  I am well familiar with the Debonaire Maduro, as well as the Habano, but I haven’t tried the Daybreak yet.  Anyway, The Sagita is a 5½” x 38 petite lancero. It has a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper over Dominican and “Central American” fillers. Interesting fact about the Debonaire line: only the wrappers change, the blend stays the same, and it’s a tasty blend. Phil Zanghi uses what he calls an alchemy process to turn his tobacco into gold,  and I do enjoy the cigars. The Maduro adds a sweetness to the savory blend that I find appealing. Thanks to Drew Estate, who distributes the line, for sending these along.

That’s about all I have for today. I’m happy that Spring seems to be close, and Daylight Savings time closer. Hopefully I can get back on the two posts a week schedule soon. I had a thought about supplementing with some sort of video, although I’m not entirely sure about that… Until the next time,

CigarCraig